General secretary of Italian trade fair industry association AEFI, Loredana Sarti, says that following an uncertain reopening, the scenario for the country’s 2022 exhibition calendar is looking promising.
The publication of legislation on 4 February, Sarti says, opens up the possibility for international operators to participate in Italian trade fairs and “makes it possible to implement the full programmes by sector and activity of the 235 international and 241 national events that are envisaged in the official calendar prepared by Italy’s Conference of Regions and Autonomous Provinces”.
Foreign nationals coming to Italy and who are in possession of a certificate of recovery or who are vaccinated by an authorised vaccine are allowed access to services and activities for which Italy’s Enhanced Green Pass is required, including events.
The legislation is subject to change, of course, so AEFI advises checking this site for an update.
International events
Citing the calendar drawn up by Italy’s Conference of Regions, Sarti says the largest number of events with international participation are likely to be concentrated in the following sectors:
- Textiles: 15% of total events
- Sport, hobbies, entertainment, art: 11%
- Food, beverages and hospitality: 9%
- Mechanics: 9%
- Jewellery, watches and accessories: 8%
- Agriculture, forestry and animal husbandry: 7%
Italian products in these sectors are benefitting from significant market confidence, she notes, and expects the 2021 figures to show exports growing by over 11% in 2021. This, Sarti says, makes events an important reference point.
Trade fair events at European level are classified into 27 sectors: in 2019, Italy had an event in the top five places for exhibitors and/or visitors in 19 of these, and in the top 3 places in 15 sectors.
Exhibition venues
In Italy 95% of international exhibitions are held in AEFI-member exhibition districts. At a regional level, Lombardy, Emilia Romagna, Veneto, Campania and Tuscany are the regions with the highest number of international events, Sarti reports while Lombardy, Emilia Romagna, Piedmont, Apulia, Veneto and Tuscany are the regions with the highest number of national events.
World ranking
Sarti notes that data recently published by UFI in its World Map of Exhibition Venues, shows Italy has 2,361,690sqm of covered surface area exhibition space, equal to 5.8% of the global surface area and 15% of the European surface area, which ranks Italy fourth in the world and second in Europe in terms of available exhibition surface space.
Sarti adds there are 45 districts with more than 5,000sqm, 22 with between 20,000 and 100,000sqm and seven have more than 100,000sqm.
